A Historic Night for Equality and Fairness

Last night was a historic moment in the long struggle for LGBT rights and equality in the United States. Marriage equality passed in two states – and looks close to passing in a third as votes continue to be counted – and Minnesota became the first state to defeat a discriminatory marriage amendment. Jewish communities in each of these states played a critical role in securing these victories, we at the RAC were part of a coalition in Maryland and committed time and energy to the effort there, and the Union for Reform Judaism has been broadly supportive of all of these initiatives. Though there is plenty of work left to do in the fight for full equality, we can celebrate today.

This victory brings the count of states in which same-sex marriage is legal to 8 states and the District of Columbia (Washington would bring the total to nine). It means that 16.3% of the U.S. population lives in states where same-sex marriage is legal or fully recognized (again, winning Washington would make it roughly 18.5%).

We reached another major milestone last night when the good people (I have a little bit of home-state pride here) of Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin’s first female senator and the first openly lesbian or gay person to be elected to the senate. She will be joined in the 113th Congress by newly-elected LGBT congressmen Marc Pocan (D-WI) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) as well as reelected incumbents Jared Polis (D-CO) and David Cicciline (D-RI). This is the highest number of openly LGBT people serving in congress in history.

While we celebrate today, the struggle for equality continues. It is still too early to know exactly what last night’s results mean for critical legislative initiatives like repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and creating better protections for LGBT youth in schools. It is critical that the momentum and energy that we built on our way to these crucial victories does not end here.

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[…] Despite major victories in the past year, and more in just the last week, the majority of states still do not recognize marriages between two people of the same gender. Additionally the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 (see what he says about it today though), prohibits the federal government from recognizing even state-sanctioned same-sex marriages. This injustice means that same-sex couples are not entitled to the same financial rights and responsibilities, custody rights, or immigration privileges (to name just a few) as their heterosexual counterparts. But tomorrow and Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear two landmark cases that could do much to rectify this inequality. […]

[…] sanctioned same-sex marriages in Washington state, Maryland and Maine – all three of which voted to legalize same-sex marriage in November. Already, thousands of same-sex couples have received marriage licenses in these states, including […]